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On September 2, Steve Hinton Jr. established a new speed record for a propeller-driven piston-engined aircraft by flying the heavily-modified P-51 Voodoo at an average speed of 531.53 mph (855.41 kph), thus largely defeating the previous record, established by Will Whiteside Jr. and Yak-3U Steadfast in 2012.

Despite this achievement, Hinton and his team were a bit disappointed with the result as they had hoped to defeat the 528 mph speed record set by Lyle Shelton with the F8F Bearcat Rare Bear in 1989. Since the FAI’s regulations have evolved, Shelton’s speed record is no longer official, but Steve Hinton was hoping to better it by at least 1%, i.e. the minimum required to validate a new record. This would have required an average speed of 533.28 mph.

Nevertheless, Steve Hinton is now the proud owner of the world speed record for a propeller-driven, piston-engined aircraft.

Source: The Vintage Aviation Echo

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Whiteside's record-breaking Yak-3U "Steadfast" (Photo Jack Snell (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)).

On October 10, Will Whiteside broke the world speed record for an piston-engine powered aircraft of less than 6,600 lbs. This record was held since 1935 by Howard Hughes in his H1 racer, and was only broken in 2002 by an H1 replica. Flying his Yak-3U “Steadfast”, Whiteside broke the record at 407 mph, beating the H1 replica by 102 mph.

The record-breaking flight was made in Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah. It should soon be validated by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. Whiteside, who ran at the Reno Air Race this year, flies a 2005 Yak-3U powered by a 1,750 hp Pratt & Whitney R-2000 7M2 radial engine.

Visit Team Steadfast’s website.